Julie Owens (Parramatta, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 1 July Sister Catherine Ryan was appointed Chancellor of Parramatta Catholic Diocese. As a non-Catholic, I have to say that it looks like a fantastic decision. For a start, she is a Sister of Mercy and anybody who knows the Sisters of Mercy knows how fabulous they are.

She has also been a trailblazer. As an administrator in the Catholic Education Office Sydney, Sister Catherine founded the Leadership Development Program for Primary School Principals in 1974. She has served as a teacher and principle of several Catholic primary schools in Western Sydney.

In the 1990s she expanded her pastoral service as the chaplain to people living with HIV/AIDS after initiating her clinical pastoral education at the Royal North Shore Hospital. She was appointed Congregation Vicar in 2004 and Congregation Leader in 2010 of the Congregation of Sisters of Mercy Parramatta. Just as Sister Catherine was a trailblazer then, she is today as the first women today appointed to such a position in New South Wales. The appointment was made by the relatively-new Bishop Vincent Long Van Nguyen. It is a testament to his leadership.

I have always believed that leadership is defined by the qualities of those who choose to travel with you and measured by the character of those you strengthen. By that measure, this appointment reflects well on both of them. Congratulations to Sister Catherine and I wish her the best of luck in her service.